Fighting for Equity in Education

The struggle is long but hope is longer

The NSW Minister for Education has accepted the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee report to implement a genuine and transparent consultation approach on proposed school closures. >> Read on...

Closing public schools not only has a negative impact on student performance but also creates hardship for communities already struggling with disinvestment. Closing schools in the US is a vehicle for the privatization of education. >> Read on...

The report by the NSW Legislative Council Select Committee on the closure of public schools in NSW presented three detailed and damning case studies about the failure of the Department of Education to consult genuinely with school communities >> Read on...

The NSW Legislative Council report on the closure of public schools shows that the Department of Education conducted a war against small rural schools. Some 36 public schools have been closed under the Baird Government. >> Read on...

SOS submission to the NSW Parliament inquiry on school closures recommends that governments considering closing public schools should carefully analyse the educational, financial and social impact on students, their families and the general school community. It says that proposed school closures should be examined by an independent public inquiry process. >> Read on...

An OECD review of studies of school size shows that small schools may provide better school outcomes for students, especially at the primary school level and for lower socio-economic status students, and that closing small schools is not as cost-effective as often assumed. >> Read on...

The Tasmanian Greens Minister for Education should use the ACT legislation as a model for consulting on school closures. The legislation ensures an independent and open consultation on the full impact of school closures. >> Read on...

The impact statements on school closures issued to school associations by the Tasmanian Minister for Education, Nick McKim, are farcical. They present a one-sided view of the impact of closing schools. They fail to assess the benefits of keeping schools open. < >> Read on...

The funding of school expansions in the ACT Budget reveals that the Government has returned to a policy of meeting local demand for neighbourhood schools and is now prepared to expand schools in regions with excess capacity—previously it only wanted to close schools in such cases.< >> Read on...

A new study concludes that research evidence offers remarkable little support for the propositions that closing schools leads to financial savings or school improvement. Most often it harms school communities and the most vulnerable students and families. >> Read on...

Demolition crews have been caught ‘red-handed’ smashing and pulling down internal walls at the Flynn Primary School over the school holidays without a public development application and while heritage matters concerning the site are before the ACT Supreme Court >> Read on...

Amendments to the ACT Education Act passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly should ensure a better consultation process around school closure proposals and ensure a much fuller analysis of the impact of proposed school closures. >> Read on...

Following the scathing findings of the School Closure Inquiry, the Flynn Primary School Parents and Citizens Association is calling on the Greens to stand up for communities in the upcoming sittings of the Assembly, by supporting the re-opening of Flynn, Hall, Tharwa and Cook schools. >> Read on...

The Education Committee of the ACT Legislative Assembly has delivered a weak-kneed report on school closures. It has failed to deliver a better process for considering school closure proposals in the future. It has dashed the hopes and expectations of many for a better approach. >> Read on...

The Flynn community welcomed today’s Education Standing Committee recommendation to re-open Hall and Tharwa primary schools but said the recommendation in regard to Flynn has put a cloud over Flynn’s future. >> Read on...

Hall and district residents are delighted with the findings of the report on school closures by the Standing Committee on Education, Training and Youth Affairs tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly this morning. >> Read on...

Convenor of Save Our Schools, Trevor Cobbold, delivered a paper on school mergers and closures to a forum in Adelaide on 3 September 2009 sponsored by the South Australian Branch of the Australian Education Union. >> Read on...

The estimates of government savings from school closures during 2006-2008 presented to the Estimates Committee of the ACT Legislative Assembly recently are outdated, misleading and not believable. < >> Read on...

It was bittersweet news for suburban communities when the Chief Minister announced a consultation on how to consult, almost three years exactly after the Government began its infamous consultation on plans to close 23 government schools.< >> Read on...

The ACT Government’s failure to do a cost-benefit study of the Towards 2020 Plan leads to the conclusion that that it had already made up its mind to close schools and did not want evidence to the contrary. >> Read on...

Towards 2020 proposes the conversion of five schools to early childhood schools that include pre-school to Years 3 or 4. This article examines the options for these schools and reflects on the past experience of “amalgamated” schools. >> Read on...

Save Our Schools Canberra said today that low income families will be hit hard by the Stanhope Government’s school closure plan. with many of the schools listed for closure serve the least well-off communities in Canberra. >> Read on...

The Towards 2020 plan to close 39 pre-schools and schools and to partially close 5 other schools is a serious threat to the equity goals of public education, effective provision of community services and the well-being of local communities. >> Read on...

Save Our Schools Canberra has accused the Stanhope Government of disadvantaging Indigenous students and their families in its school closure plan with most of the schools with significant Indigenous enrolments on the list for full or partial closure. >> Read on...

The Save Our Schools Canberra group today called on the ACT Government to urgently resolve the teachers’ dispute and initiate an inquiry into the financial and social impact of the Towards 2020 plan. >> Read on...

New high school application figures issued by the Minister for Education suggest that the threat of closure has had a major impact on the two high schools threatened with closure, contrary to earlier assertions by the Minister. >> Read on...

Save Our Schools Canberra has called on the Minister for Education, Andrew Barr, to release the full enrolment application figures for high schools in 2007 rather than the selective figures issued by the Minister >> Read on...

Apparent enrolment increases in government high schools in the face of likely closures probably reflects the fact that parents were protecting their options by multiple enrolments at different high schools. >> Read on...

Save Our Schools group has for a public inquiry to investigate the financial and social impact of the Towards 2020 Plan to close 39 schools because the consultation process has failed to address key issues required by legislation and has now become a farce. >> Read on...

The Stanhope Government has admitted that it has no plans in place to cope with increased bus travel by students as a result of school closures, nor to improve traffic safety measures for students walking or cycling long distances to and from school. >> Read on...

The failure of the Minister for Education, Andrew Barr, to provide parents with statements of reasons for schools being listed for closure has opened up the Government to legal action by parents and parent organisations. >> Read on...

An action item for parent groups preparing their case against their school being closed is to do an estimate of the increased distance their children will have to walk to another school in the region and the additional costs incurred by bus or car travel to other schools. >> Read on...

The deep divisions in the Stanhope Goverment over school closures, as shown at the ALP Branch Conference, threatens the future of the Government. The Chief Minister has his head in the sand if he thinks otherwise. >> Read on...